Do you think politicians and the media are doing a dance for us as the mass audience...

I'd say the media definately misleads people, as well as politicians to a degree. Politicians bank on keywords like healthcare, education, social programs, and taxes because frankly, it gets them re-elected. As far as legislation is concerned, its not unheard of for governments to pass important resolutions on Christmas Eve under the cloak of a bunch of other documents. Every government has an agenda and tends to over-estimate its effectiveness while sweeping as many errors under the rug as possible. Colbert is great, but non-partisan 'thinktanks' also provide a more realistic glimpse of what is going on. (although sometimes they can have overtly leftist or rightist views as well) The best way to get a good estimation of the truth is to take everything you hear with a grain of salt. When things don't add up, there's usually a deeper reason why.

They are dancing and for the most part we are charmed. If you think about it, politicians use the media as they want: they put up adds, give interviews and smile a lot. Of course they never answer any questions they don't want to answer and thus, the media benefits them. The media is a circus.

Yes, I do. Whom ever is in power is who controls the media. Like in China, Iran, Russia and other countries the powers that be tell them what to say how much to say and when to say it. Even if they should investigate something. A half truth is not truth. When the media is written, spoken and shown with no biased, whole truth, with nothing hidden, then you know you are free. We are losing our freedom and quickly.